ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN’S ASSOCIATION. 
*9 
age from stable to stable for these cows, will be as indispensible as the 
milk peddler now is to the families that do not keep a cow. Or as a 
substitute lor this, the man who owns only a house and lot of God’s 
foot stool will have his silo in his back yard, and a man who has the 
ground to raise the corn, and the machinery to prepare it, will take 
contracts to till family silos and insure its successful preservation. 
The method of preserving ensilage is now so well understood 
that there need be no failures. The rules are few and simple, and yet 
a departure from one or more of them may bring disaster. 
I will enumerate them: 
1. The silo must be so nearly water tight, and so well drained 
that no water can get in from the surrounding soil. The walls must 
be strong and perpendicular. 
2. The corn or other crops should be cut when in full blossom, 
and when in full sap. With corn, the time of silking out is right, with 
clover, when in full red blossom. 
3. The crop should be cut short with a fodder cutter, length not 
exceeding a half inch, and should be harvested promptly. 
4. It should be tramped into the silo while filling, and when 
completed, planked over in sections not exceding 4 ft. in width with 
planks nearly touching the walls of the silo. 
5. These planks should be weighted with not less than 50 lb. to 
the square foot. These simple rules cover the whole ground. No 
straw is needed under the planks. If an accident should happen to 
cause delay during the filling, sprinkling water on the ensilage already 
in the silo will keep it safe while the machinery can be repaired. The 
work of filling can go on as well during a wet day as a dry day so far 
as the success of the work is concerned. 
Any new enterprise gives rise to a demand for new machinery 
especially adapted to its needs. This has been the case with the sys¬ 
tem of ensilage. A rapid, powerful, and durable fodder cutter was in¬ 
dispensible. Such a one called the cycle ensilage cutter has been 
brought out by the New York Plow Co. 55 Beekman St. New 
York. It does its work rapidly, and with less power than any one 
yet invented. It works with the draw cut and will cut ten tons of 
corn fodder an hour with six horse power. The cost I am not able to 
give at this time. I notice that a smaller machine of the same kind is 
now manufactured by David Dawton, at Racine Wisconsin, called the 
“Belle City feed and Ensilage cutter.” 
I have no doubt.that Yankee ingenuity will soon devise a substi¬ 
tute for the troublesome and expensive plan thus far practiced of 
weighting the ensilage. I see no good reason why a system of screws 
might not be used if carefully attended to for the first 15 days aft 
the filling of the silos. 
ENSILAGE. 
BY E. J. OATMAN, DUNDEE. 
Mr. President :—This subject of ensilage, to which the writer has 
been assigned for this occasion, is one filled with interest, not only to 
the writer, but to every man, be he dairyman, stock raiser, or cotton 
